Usability vs. design: the fight for the Web's vibrant soul

Unlike a brochure, which need only look great while providing a little information, a Web site is an interactive mechanism that helps people accomplish tasks. A site that looks beautiful but functions poorly is about as useful as a sleek new Ferrari with a stammering engine. A usable site, on the other hand, is an invaluable tool in helping users achieve their goals in the simplest way possible.


A few of you might fear that choosing usability over design will dull the Web's vibrant soul with shades of corporate grey, turning it into an incredibly boring place. But trust me, pragmatic design will make the Web more enjoyable.


Form needs to yield to function


This simple concept is too often overlooked - the breakout of Web pages that serve up snazzy animation without offering any clues as to the site's purpose bears witness to this. The solution: designers need to cut out the superfluous stuff and make their sites as practical as possible.


But, in order to make a site easy and intuitive to use, designers require a deep understanding of the way that users approach their tasks.


Usability comes before design


Usability should drive the early stages of your project, and comes before design even begins - when you define what the system should do, what its features should be, and how users' tasks should be supported. By proactively building usability into your Web from the word go, you will save yourself the hassle of having to fix usability problems later.


Issues like expectations in navigation, logical and intuitive site design and content are huge considerations. Add architecture issues, transactional requirements and performance expectations, all while trying to maximise user profiling and personalisation, dynamic content assembly and interactivity, and you will understand the importance of incorporating usability from the start. Get these fundamentals wrong and no design can save you.


Good usability is made of this


But usability shouldn't be considered as a way to prevent potential problems, but rather, as an opportunity that realises greater possibilities.


A well designed, user-friendly site will reflect the priorities of the business and streamline workflow, reduce costs, predict and measure desired behaviour, track competitive differentiation, establish service levels and build a brand through a targeted, positive user experience - which has a direct tie to market competitiveness.


The ultimate challenge is to integrate usability into your strategy so that it becomes a key part of the process of planning, design, development, testing and launch.


Getting what you want


Users come to your site to get a specific job done - now. So if you're not helping, you're hurting.


Jupiter Research found that 70% of consumers, when they fail to find what they're looking for quickly, or come across a disorganised site, would leave. And make no mistake: when users come across a difficult page, or find one they cannot navigate, they won't return! So, making the page usable is a necessity if you are to survive on the Internet.


Ultimately, your Web site should serve two true objectives: realising business goals through targeted objectives, and happy customers.


To achieve this, you will need to create an intuitive, quick-loading site. After all, what's more important: a good-looking site - or a site that has you looking good?